“It’s important that we provide more than just a monetary benefit, that we provide job training, an additional level of support that helps put (food-stamp recipients) on a path toward a career and out of poverty,” Ben Johnson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, told the newspaper.

For years, Ohio has taken advantage of a federal waiver exempting food-stamps recipients from the work requirements that Kasich championed while U.S. House Budget Committee chairman during the mid-1990s.

“The governor believes in a work requirement,” Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said Friday. “But when the economy is bad and people are hurting, the waiver can be helpful. Now, fortunately, Ohio’s economy is improving.”

An estimated 134,000 adults will be subject to the work requirements. They are ages 18 to 50, without children under 18, and deemed to be physically and mentally able to participate, Johnson said.

County officials who administer public assistance and advocates for the poor predict the requirement will take food stamps away from thousands of Ohioans.

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